Pippa pal is icing on the cake: PR girl Katie Readman models for James Middleton's baking business

The last time cake-making
entrepreneur James Middleton offered us a glimpse of his handiwork it
was of novelty cupcakes that came complete with rather bawdy slogans.

This
week, the brother of the Duchess of Cambridge had his risque signature
design on hand to help record the bikini-clad assignment of sister
Pippa’s close friend Katie Readman.

Katie, 23, agreed to
model swimwear designer Alexia Pinchbeck’s Bikini Fling range as a
favour and James produced five different images of her in edible ink.

(Left) James and Pippa Middleton step out at the Jubilee and (Right) their close friend PR girl Katie Readman

St
Paul’s-educated Katie, who is usually a PR girl around town — she used
to work with Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs’s ethical fashion label Beulah —
tells me: ‘I haven’t modelled since I was younger, but as it was for a
close friend I thought, “Why not?”

‘We shot the photos on a freezing day in Brixton, but despite the cold I managed to keep smiling.’

Katie
was joined by guests including Made In Chelsea’s Rosie Fortescue,
party-loving Olivia Perry and Sir David Frost’s son Wilfred at Barts
club in Chelsea Cloisters.

She adds: ‘It is quite embarrassing
seeing pictures of myself on cupcakes, but I think they went down well
and it was a cheeky way to display the styles.’

Sir Mick Jagger was a noticeable absentee at this month’s Buckingham
Palace concert. At the time he was said to be abroad.

But will he be on
stage for the Olympics? Now I hear Sir Mick may have found a window in
his foreign domicile tax calendar to appear with the Rolling Stones at
the August 12 closing ceremony.

The show will feature Sir Paul
McCartney, The Who and a virtual A-Z of Britain’s biggest names. Says my
man in the star dressing room:

‘Everyone has been sworn to secrecy, but
it might explain why the Stones are getting together for a gig with
Ronnie Wood this weekend.’

Licence fee at risk says TV grandee

Peter Dimmock, former head of outside broadcasting believes Thompson
should have made a public apology for the shambolic coverage of the
Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Outgoing BBC Director-General Mark Thompson may feel that he has weathered the storm over the Corporation’s lamentable coverage of the Queen’s Jubilee river pageant.

But even before he relinquishes his £675,000 salary, he faces renewed criticism.

This time it comes from a venerable figure from the BBC’s golden era, who is especially scathing of the Corporation and its failure to retain coverage of such iconic events as the Grand National and the Derby.

Peter Dimmock, former head of outside broadcasting, presenter of Grandstand and mastermind of coverage of the Coronation in 1953, has spoken privately of his dismay at the culture presided over by Thompson.

I understand Dimmock, 91, a guest of the Queen at Ascot last week, believes Thompson should have made a public apology and named the executive responsible for the shambolic coverage of one of the highlights of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Says a friend: ‘Peter feels very strongly that Thompson is putting the licence fee in jeopardy. Thank God the BBC is still showing Wimbledon, but he sincerely believes people have a right to a decent public broadcasting service. ‘And if they don’t get Royal Ascot, Epsom and the Grand National, they are being cheated.

He says it is not just a question of sport. These are national events. The river pageant was the last straw. He was on a riverside balcony at Hurlingham on the day and one of his fellow guests was able to identify more boats than any of the BBC commentators.

‘It was embarrassing for someone who worked for the BBC for so long — and who thought it was a privilege to do so.’

The friend adds: ‘He believes the bad management structure at the BBC is to blame. No one has been blamed for it. Peter believes Thompson should have apologised, accepting ultimate responsibility, and named the executive responsible.’

Last night Dimmock told me: ‘I do have strong feelings on the matter but I would prefer not to elaborate. As far as seeing the Queen last week, my admiration for her knows no bounds.’

First Elizabeth Hurley claimed the country was ‘far sexier’ than the
city. Now Joan Collins’ daughter Tara Newley is the latest evangelist
for the thrills of rural living.

Single mother-of-two Tara, 48, left London for Somerset some nine years ago and life has been far from dull.

In
her new, steamy online diary Sex In The Country, she writes: ‘If you
think country life is all cows and cow s*** you are only half right. OK,
yes there are cows, and yes there is a lot of cow s***, but there is
also a whole lot more to it. In the country there are a lot of hormones
flying about, you have all these animals doing it around you and you can
almost smell sex in the air.’

Colourful Tara, who split from her
toyboy lover, roofer Paul Beck, three years ago, adds: ‘People often use
relationships like plasters for the last one and I’m determined not to
do that. I have two kids to think about, so the next man who walks into
my life will have to be pretty special.’

Proud: Tony Greig's father flew for the RAF

The tallest (at 6ft 7in) and possibly the proudest invitee at the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park today will be former England cricket captain Tony Greig.

‘My dad flew 54 missions as a navigator. He died in 1990,’ says Greig, now 65.

‘He was a great guy and I’ll be proudly wearing his medals on my chest.’

Sandy Greig, born in Bathgate, West Lothian, was an accomplished rugby player, a decent cricketer, ran an insurance business, became an editor of a local newspaper and was a squadron leader by the age of 21 in 101 Squadron.

He was awarded the DSO and the DFC.

His horrific experiences navigating bombers over German cities night after night led to him becoming an alcoholic in later life.

But, with the help of his wife Joyce and his family, he overcame it. ‘My mother is still going strong at 93,’ adds Greig.

General Sir Michael Jackson has given the military thumbs-up to the Queen’s handshake with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

The former head of the Army, a captain in the Parachute Regiment in Londonderry in 1972 when 13 people were shot dead, said no one had forced the Queen to make the gesture.

Ahead of an address at Boisdale restaurant in Canary Wharf for pro-smokers Forest, Sir Michael, 68, tells me: ‘The Queen knows her own mind and would not have shaken McGuinness’s hand if she didn’t want to. It was the right thing to do.’

Just as the debate on Lords reform turns nasty, with Tory MPs threatening to resign over the Nick Clegg-sponsored plans, it is surely an irony to note new life peers are still being welcomed onto the red benches.

On Tuesday, film director Beeban Kidron, who made Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, was introduced as Baroness Kidron.

The daughter of a Marxist economist, among crossbencher Lady Kidron’s credits are a BBC adaptation of Jeanette Winterson’s lesbian novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, and Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps And Their Johns, about prostitutes. Adds to the gaiety of the nation, I suppose.